Housing assistance for vets delayed by voucher count

Ex-military personnel living on streets because of paperwork dispute

Retired Marine William Hamilton, 57, had to live for a few months under a bridge by Hermann Park.

Retired Marine William Hamilton, 57, had to live for a few months...

Veterans slept on Houston streets or shuffled between shelter programs because local housing advocates and federal Veterans Affairs officials could not agree on how many housing vouchers were available.

In February, for instance, more than 150 homeless veterans participated in a housing readiness program at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, waiting to be referred to local housing authorities for rent assistance if they qualified. The Harris County Housing Authority calculated it had 60 housing vouchers earmarked for veterans, but the agency did not receive referrals for four months, in part, because of the way the VA counts the vouchers available.

As a result, 720 months of rent from the county housing authority went unused in the last year, according to a Houston Chronicle review of emails and data obtained in a public records request. Another 370 months of rent were unused at the Houston Housing Authority. The rent assistance is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but clients must be referred from the VA.

"I am told we have plenty of homeless veterans on a waiting list, so that the lack of referrals is not due to the lack of homeless veterans," Tom McCasland, CEO of the county housing authority, wrote in an email to VA officials.

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Though the VA and housing authorities are charged with making it a priority to get homeless veterans into housing, the agencies differ in how they count the vouchers used to pay for that housing.

Under the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, the VA looks at the number of vouchers available each day. According to DeBakey officials, of the 1,370 veterans vouchers funded at local housing authorities, 1,350 currently are being used, a rate of 99 percent.

Unused days add up

Local housing authorities, however, say that does not take into account the days that vouchers are not used, often because of delays in locating apartments or completing mandatory paperwork. Those unused days add up to months of funding that federal rules require housing authorities to spend.

"That's a level of operating sophistication the housing authorities are really good at. It's their business," said Mandy Chapman-Semple, the mayor's special assistant on homeless initiatives. "That's not something the VA is good at. They're used to looking at medical services, not housing lease-up rates."

From the perspective of some DeBakey officials, they are meeting federal expectations.

"We don't have a problem," said Dr. Quindola Crowley, chief of social work at DeBakey, who oversees case managers who coordinate health care for voucher recipients. "All the vouchers we have currently are pretty much leased up."

The discrepancy between housing agencies and the VA was highlighted in a recent audit by HUD's inspector general, which indicated the problem of unused vouchers is nationwide.

"In 2013, only 76 percent of vouchers were leased," read a June report. "The differing roles between HUD and the VA created a challenge."

Tory Gunsolley, CEO of the Houston Housing Authority, heard the same complaint at a recent conference for housing leaders, but said local VA leaders have been more open to discussion and change.

"Yeah, there have been issues," Gunsolley acknowledged. "But now they're a lot farther along than a lot of their peers."

Dr. Laura Marsh, DeBakey's director of mental health services, defended the VA's efforts, but said the agency still faces hurdles.

For example, she said, federal funding for case managers is determined by the number of vouchers, not the number of veterans seeking housing. To meet the housing authorities' demand for more referrals, she must hire more staff or increase case loads.

She also emphasized that housing is just one piece of the effort to stabilize the long-term homeless who receive vouchers.

"These patients have multiple medical, physical and psycho-social needs," she said. "They really would not be able to stay in housing without the additional supportive services."

Caught in a spiral

One of those left waiting for a voucher was Marine veteran William Hamilton, who said he first applied for VA housing assistance in 2011 after the car he was living in was stolen. Hamilton had lost his regular job as an auto shop sales manager and had been working temporary jobs until he broke his arm while roofing.

That, he said, is when he first visited the DeBakey Center for medical care and guidance on where to find housing. With his arm in a sling and waiting for help to come through, he wore black trash bags under his clothes for warmth and slept in a bush behind a nearby supermarket.

"I didn't know where else to go," Hamilton said. "It was cold. Wet. I bought a tarp, but you can keep out only so much rain."

After he was robbed of his meager belongings at knifepoint, Hamilton was forced to find other places to sleep - under a bridge, on a bench, beneath yet another bush. He sometimes visited shelters, but he said many programs limited how long he could stay and the closing times sometimes conflicted with the hours of his temporary jobs.

To Hamilton, who finally received a voucher from the Harris County Housing Authority last week, the delay was not just about getting a roof over his head, but about rebuilding his life.

"That's all I ever asked for. I just need my independence to get my legs under me," he said, cautious not to be too optimistic because he realizes he still must manage his health, find work and save for a vehicle. "It's not over yet."